Not an Emergency...Marek's in the Flock

[casportpony]

Looks like I have another... This one has "curly toe Marek's" and "drunk Marek's" He can still walk, sort of...

-Kathy

 

[seminolewind]

Sorry to hear it.
The roo that died on me has a brother that is in with 2 of my sturdy Polish, and doing well. Seems they are all in love with eachother. They had a co-ed dust bath today.

 

[Haunted55]

Oh Cripes kathy! Reversable or are they gone? The drunken sounds like the start of occular to me.

 

[casportpony]

The drunken and curly toe forms in my flock *always* leads to total paralysis, but my birds with the ocular form are all doing fine and never look "off", that seems to be the least lethal form here. Sure wish I could figure out how to do videos.

-Kathy

 

[Farmgirl33]

Hi! I just had a girl die, and it sounds like she might have Marek's. I have a laying flock of 37 hens and 2 roosters of mixed heritage breeds that are pastured with a mobile coop. The one that died was a white leghorn and about 22 months old. I noticed that she hadn't been eating much and was just standing around when the others were foraging. Then on Wednesday she didn't come out of the coop so I picked her up and noticed that her bottom was crusted over with poop, her comb and wattle were also pale and dry looking. I gave her a bath and fed her yogurt and water with ACV. She was happy to eat, but couldn't seem to move her one leg. I put her in the (dry) bathtub overnight with towels and she had terrible diarrhea that smelled really bad. She also had a purplish spot that grew on her comb. The next day I put her in a separate shed with a heat lamp. She wasn't able to walk and died two days later. When I found her her legs were splayed to the front and back. She didn't appear to have any respiratory issues. Now taking a look at my other girls their combs don't seem that healthy. Most of them are going through a partial molt. 25 of them were hatched this February, 6 I bought as ready to lay pullets in May, and the other 6 were from my first batch of chicks from February of 2012. When they were chicks I didn't have any unexplained deaths. Can Marek's show up this late in their life or should I be looking for something else? Thanks!

 

[schnebbles]

I'm sorry Kathy

Farmgirl - yes, it can show up later in life. Stress of molting can also seem to make the mareks show up from what I've been told here. As for my 3 losses they have not had stinky diarrhea so I don't know about that.

Asking again - does anyone know if mareks can cause wry neck? my d'uccle pullet seems to have it. I can feel the bend in her neck. She always sits fluffed up, even when I bring her in for her medicine. Doesn't seem to want to walk a lot either. my experience so far with chickens is awful. I give them vitamins always in the water so I have trouble thinking it's a vitamin e deficiency. But I'm treating with it. ughhhhhhh

 

[Nambroth]

I'm sorry Kathy

Farmgirl - yes, it can show up later in life. Stress of molting can also seem to make the mareks show up from what I've been told here. As for my 3 losses they have not had stinky diarrhea so I don't know about that.

Asking again - does anyone know if mareks can cause wry neck? my d'uccle pullet seems to have it. I can feel the bend in her neck. She always sits fluffed up, even when I bring her in for her medicine. Doesn't seem to want to walk a lot either. my experience so far with chickens is awful. I give them vitamins always in the water so I have trouble thinking it's a vitamin e deficiency. But I'm treating with it. ughhhhhhh

I am not honestly sure about this. Maybe? I can't find any literature either way. Maybe someone else knows of something...
But, I do have one that has wry neck on-and-off, meaning it gets bad, then she seemingly recovers, then it gets bad again, she recovers again, and so on. I have tried vitamin therapy and anti-inflammatory meds (vet prescribed metacam) and I don't know if they helped or if she was merely injured or if it is Marek's, or if this is a lifelong consequence of her being a sickly runt (she is messed up, twisted skull, etc), or what-- it seems impossible to know what was going on with her! Her nutrition is very good and none of my other birds have issues with wry neck. It's puzzling.

 

[Haunted55]

I think I would term this more as a consequence rather than a cause. Yeah, I know, fine line there, but let me ramble on...if a tumor from Marek's was pushing on a nerve, I would call it cause. If on the other hand the Marek's fouled up the digestive system and brought about deficiencies....yeah, it could be true Wry Neck and could be treated with the E and Bs with some results. I would also look to the breed of bird to see if there are any known problems with them. I'll never forget the person who thought she had Marek's in one of her birds and it turned out to be an infection caused by the 'normal' shape of the breed's skull. Just research everything first and then see what can be done after. I think in our own ways, we find Marek's and lay everything at it's feet and it's possible we lose birds when it isn't the Marek's causing the issues.

 

[seminolewind]

Hi! I just had a girl die, and it sounds like she might have Marek's. I have a laying flock of 37 hens and 2 roosters of mixed heritage breeds that are pastured with a mobile coop. The one that died was a white leghorn and about 22 months old. I noticed that she hadn't been eating much and was just standing around when the others were foraging. Then on Wednesday she didn't come out of the coop so I picked her up and noticed that her bottom was crusted over with poop, her comb and wattle were also pale and dry looking. I gave her a bath and fed her yogurt and water with ACV. She was happy to eat, but couldn't seem to move her one leg. I put her in the (dry) bathtub overnight with towels and she had terrible diarrhea that smelled really bad. She also had a purplish spot that grew on her comb. The next day I put her in a separate shed with a heat lamp. She wasn't able to walk and died two days later. When I found her her legs were splayed to the front and back. She didn't appear to have any respiratory issues. Now taking a look at my other girls their combs don't seem that healthy. Most of them are going through a partial molt. 25 of them were hatched this February, 6 I bought as ready to lay pullets in May, and the other 6 were from my first batch of chicks from February of 2012. When they were chicks I didn't have any unexplained deaths. Can Marek's show up this late in their life or should I be looking for something else? Thanks!

I would first make a mad dash and check all the things they could eat, and make sure that nothing is nasty. You may want to toss the feed and get a new bag. Eating something toxic can give symptoms like Marek's. Next I would put them on super B vitamins. I did find nutritional yeast flakes on amazon that was loaded with B vitamins. That's what I'm using. I would also get a necropsy to end the guessing. So far mine usually look happy as a clam while they're wasting away. It could be Marek's but I would be searching for something else as well.

 

[seminolewind]

I'm sorry Kathy

Farmgirl - yes, it can show up later in life. Stress of molting can also seem to make the mareks show up from what I've been told here. As for my 3 losses they have not had stinky diarrhea so I don't know about that.

Asking again - does anyone know if mareks can cause wry neck? my d'uccle pullet seems to have it. I can feel the bend in her neck. She always sits fluffed up, even when I bring her in for her medicine. Doesn't seem to want to walk a lot either. my experience so far with chickens is awful. I give them vitamins always in the water so I have trouble thinking it's a vitamin e deficiency. But I'm treating with it. ughhhhhhh

I've had all ages, most of them being under 8 months old, but quite a few over that. Most have not even looked sick, even if paralyzed, they have a happy face. One of my roos was 18 months old, the paralysis went up to where he couldn't even control his neck, he had a gray eye, and weighed almost nothing, and still crowed in the morning!!!!!